Tuesday
Aug172010
Bunkers In The Whistling Straits Yardage Book
Reader Mark noted that if Dustin Johnson looked at his yardage book he would have seen yardages. He asked if I could procure a copy of the 18th diagram. After a search, Mark himself came up with it and shares the work of Stracka Line. Not much grey area here. Though in Johnson's defense, I never saw him look at the book. But there is also a missing gap in the CBS coverage where he purportedly was approached by the PGA's walking official, David Price.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 08:40 AM
Reader Comments (32)
How is that a defense?
Great find, Geoff and Mark.
Why is that? What new evidence has been presented as to DJ's knowledge?
I'm not trying to debate, I just don't follow your logic.
thanks.
dig
jb
Did you see Dye being interviews after the Sunday round?
Knowing how many bunkers is the least of Pete's problems. Bless Pete, I love Sawgrass and I think WS is visually stunning, but that given....
Beautiful course, 17 and 18 are a joke at the current yardage, and again, I don't really think the number of bunkes knowledge is that big a deal, since they only have one rake...lol
Play well.
digsouth
Agreed,further proof that they did not think they were IN the bunker they were NEXT TOO caps subbig for italics)
Play Well,
digsouth
ds
The article above this discussing eliminating the bunker designation all together is right on. That said, speaking to a tour buddy of mine who played in the event, he stated: "there is no chance my club ever would have touched a piece of sand unless I knew exactly what it was." I think that best sums up what we should expect out of our professionals.
The whole thing was/is a mess though. I feel bad for DJ and think the PGA really botched this on. Either way though, it is over and makes for great country club debate.
I added the missing page to give Stracka some credit.
Will try to the Long book, but I suspect it'll show the same thing.
Ryan,
It may not be a significant addition to the discussion, but I think it's good to put all of this out there.
I agree that the number isn't important, but several times during the telecast I heard the announcers "No one knows how many bunkers there are! Not even Pete Dye!"
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/3261/image1pn.jpg
If you use the position relative to other bunkers, the aerial shot from the blimp, the CBS graphics and that his drive was 291 yards off the tee, they all confirm that this is the bunker.
But here's why this is important - it shows a large string of bunkers exactly where Johnson's ball was located. So, if you're in sand, you best assume you're in a bunker unless you get clarification that you're not.
Ky, whatever Dye's original intent was is irrelevant - bunkers change over time. I remember a couple years back when a bunker blew out at Oakland Hills during the PGA because of a storm. The grounds crew spent the entire night rebuilding the bunker - meaning that the bunker that players had seen just the day prior was now quite different. Bunkers change their shape over time naturally - particularly bunkers like those at WS. Bunkers are not a static design element.
Now, that all said, bunkers should absolutely be played "through the green".
Gary Van Sickle of SI had a post round video where there are muliple shots of the "Johnson Bunker" showing the bunkers in front as well as the larger one that lies just to the right. Using three angles from three shots was enough triangulation to pin it down.
So, Johnson's closest reference point (if his caddie did not add any prior scouting notes or yardages before the tournament) is a sprinkler head three or four years to the left of the bunker.
08.17.2010 | JC
Strackaline did also do a book for the PGA Championship at Whisling Straits. The players were given the option of which book they wanted, and a lot of players and caddies carried both. I collected the information for the book for stracka and helped put the book toghether. Therefore, it was not copyright infringement, and those pages are from the book we created this year.
After reading rest of the comments, I see lots of posts, and JC corrected himself about the Long and Stracka books being at the event. In regards to Bookman's comment on the tags, thats a big reason we are out there, tags can often be incorrect. We grab the tags specifically to use as a way to ID the head. Our numbers are captured using a gps device that is accurate to 11 inches.
There are a ton of bunkers out there, the hard part is that there are several large bunkers that have 2 or 3 little wastebasket size bunkers that appear to be a part of the main bunker, just seperated by a small patch of fescue. Ultimately, the signs were well posted all over, and it is the players responsibility to ask, if they have a question. DJ didn't have a question as to whether or not it was a bunker and it was an unfortunate mistake. We are all human and we all make them. He will grow from it, and learn from this.
Time waits for no one, sadly.
ds
That line of bunkers was easily 30 yards right of the bunkers, with a line of fescue 5 to 10 yards before you get to the bunkers. I dont think anyone intended for them to be in play, it had more to do with the daunting group of bunkers on the left side of the hole that directed DJ to hit it much further right than intended.